Kimley-Horn, Oak Harbor’s engineering consultants, has provided city officials with options for the housing element of the comprehensive plan update due at the end of next year.

The comprehensive plan, required under the Growth Management Act, is the county’s centerpiece, long-range planning document and contains policies, visions and goals for the next 20 years. One of the first steps in updating the document was to decide where population growth should go. Under the Growth Management Act, most of the population growth is supposed to be directed into municipal areas with appropriate infrastructure.

The state predicts the county’s population will grow from the current 87,000 people to nearly 103,000 in 20 years. The bulk of the housing for population increases is planned for urban areas, which in Island County largely means Oak Harbor.

Oak Harbor must accommodate 5,533 additional units, a number that the city is currently 3,059 units shy of, said Joel Farias, a planning analyst. That said, the target number of jobs — 1,219 — is attainable with Oak Harbor’s employment capacity.

Island County’s median income is $102,000, Farias said, and most of the housing needed is for income levels 0-30% of this median.

Residents with 0-30% of the median income need 1,091 units to meet the projection, he said, and those with 30-50% of the median income need 940 units. Those with 50-80% need 624 units.

While it appears low-income residents are underserved, this is not a unique problem to Oak Harbor, said Clay White, practice builder.

“The challenge the city faces is the same challenge that every city is facing,” he said.

One option the city has in addressing these challenges is to switch to a form-based code system, where developments must adhere to a specific urban form with less focus on land use like the current zoning system.

In the meantime, the council can also re-zone for high density mixed-use areas, White said.

No matter how much or little the city chooses to act via these two options, it will not reach its housing goal without adjusting the urban growth area with Island County, he said.

Councilmember Jim Woessner has been a proponent of form-based code for a while, he said, as there are other factors influencing property value than density.

Areas able to be rezoned for higher density housing marked by Kimley-Horn are mostly downtown, next to parks and the shorefront, so ensuring affordability will be difficult, he said. Re-developing properties enhances the value as well.

Further, a form-based code system is a divergence from current zoning regulations, so it doesn’t make sense to rezone areas and then switch to form-based regulations after.

Councilmember Eric Marshall agreed with Woessner, wanting to work every angle as a city before adjusting the urban growth area.

“We have to show that we are doing everything we possibly can to reach that number,” he said.